The Learners: The Book After "The Cheese Monkeys"

The Learners: The Book After "The Cheese Monkeys"

Chip Kidd

Language: English

Pages: 288

ISBN: 0061673242

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub

Fresh out of college in the summer of 1961, Happy lands his first job as a graphic designer (okay, art assistant) at a small Connecticut advertising agency populated by a cast of endearing eccentrics. Life for Happy seems to be - well, happy. But when he's assigned to design a newspaper ad recruiting participants for an experiment in the Yale Psychology Department, Happy can't resist responding to the ad himself. Little does he know that the experience will devastate him, forcing a reexamination of his past, his soul, and the nature of human cruelty - chiefly, his own. Written in sharp, witty prose and peppered with absorbing ruminations on graphic design, The Learners again shows that Chip Kidd's writing is every bit as original, stunning, and memorable as his celebrated book jackets.

gently, like it was a Fabergé egg. Or a time bomb. Was I supposed to send this back to her? No wait, that didn’t make sense. No, this was her way of sending something to me. But what? The impulse to just let it lie there and remain forever unopened held the allure of vicarious superiority. Right. Like you’re going to do that. Damn. I took my X-Acto knife and tremulously slit it up the right side, opposite the return address. I bowed the envelope and shook out the contents. Two pieces of paper

has to pull out his dork just to count to eleven. Eh, Sketch?” Yucks all around, but there was no hiding it: the faint yet unmistakable odor of desperation wafting off his pasted-on smile. He would not concede to it, not tonight. Change of subject. “Hey Sketch, remember Krinkle in the old days, with Lars?” And it popped, unbidden, into my mind: memory. Stop. Stop it. I will not think of it. “Heh, oh yeah.” Sketch chuckled. “He was a quick study, that’s for sure.” study of memory. This was

you.” “No it’s, it is helpful. I’ll have to think about it.” Please do. I gathered myself, we made our good-byes. Then, halfway through the door, I turned back to him. I don’t know why I said it, or of course I do: “I hope the ad’s been working for you okay.” “The ad?” He looked at me quizzically. “Actually, now that you mention it, the ad doesn’t seem to be generating the number of responses we’d hoped. We’re thinking of trying direct mail.” Ugh. I hated direct mail, but hate wasn’t a

It was charming.” Now that was class. Hamlet was about as charming as a caesarean birth, sans the anesthesia. It was a miracle this guy wasn’t halfway out of the room by now. Miss Pillbox had turned as white as her note cards. With Hamlet hauled away and the door shut tightly behind him, Nicky announced that we would be presenting several ideas, worked up by different teams within the firm. “Ahem.” Preston stood next to the easel, ready to give the first pitch. Once he had everyone’s attention,

bore. I am your driver’s license. I am a price tag, a phonebook, a lease, a road map, a will. But…I’m also a construction paper birthday card, scrawled in crayon with hysterical devotion by a child who actually loves you. I am the dead mouse lying faceup on your welcome mat, left just for you, by Mittens, your cat. I am the Constitution of the United States. And don’t forget, when I am angry, I am this: “HAVE YOU NO DECENCY, SIR?” Please, please, don’t confuse me with Deception or Irony or